Friends
by GhostHunter721
Summary: After Camp Half-Blood gets a not-so-mysterious message, a visitor comes back.


A flaming black cannon ball flew past the boundaries and straight into the middle of Camp Half-Blood, right where the usual campfire sing-alongs usually happened. Within seconds, the whole of Demigods – both the Greeks and the Romans who were visiting their new friends – surrounded it, weapons out and ready to attack.

Chiron had pushed to the front along with Annabeth and Percy, "Hang on! Don't attack yet!" Annabeth called out to everyone.

Many of the campers looked at her like she was insane, but no one wanted to cross her, not even the Ares cabin. The fire went out with a _pop_ and a booming voice that almost sounded like one of the angry Gods called from the ball, "THE SIX WHO WERE ON THE ARGO II COME FORWARD!"

Every single one of the Demigods looked at Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank as they all cautiously walked up, each one holding their respective weapons ready to attack. The rest of the demigods stood in the back, not one weapon dropped, all waiting for an attack.

An Iris message popped up right on top of the now smoking ball, showing only Festus the dragon. The booming voice was still coming from the ball. "THALIA'S PINE TREE! NOON TOMORROW! I WILL SEE YOU THERE MY FRIENDS!"

"Do you really have to be this dramatic?" Percy's mouth fell open when he heard that voice and his friends all took notice.

"Calypso." He said quietly to them. Everyone held their breath, realizing what this meant. It had been a month since the war with Gaea. Not one mention from this particular Demigod since he exploded in midair.

A laugh grew from the ball, "UNCLE LEO IS BACK!" He called, still in that booming voice, then the Iris message vanished.

Stunned silence for a beat. Suddenly a roar first from the Hephaestus shook the whole ground, the six others who were on the Argo II started smiling in shock, everyone else began to join in. When everything began to calm down and everyone dispersed, the original six were left standing around the cannon.

Everyone looked at Hazel, "I thought you and Nico both said Leo had…" Frank didn't finish, they all knew what he was talking about.

Hazel shook her head, "Nico can feel things stronger than me. He mentioned… a little bit ago, that he had felt something weird. I did too, but I didn't understand it. Neither of us wanted to give out any false hope. So we never said anything."

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to figure out what happened when suddenly Piper gasped, "The Physicians Cure!" When everyone just looked at her, she continued. "Leo had it, right? Maybe he found a way to use it!"

"Impossible." Annabeth said, "Someone would have had to administer it to him after death."

"Leo's smart." Jason piped up, "He managed to turn the Argo II into Fetus again, I wouldn't doubt he managed to use the cure."

"Why would it have taken him so long to get back us though? Why wouldn't he have at least told us he was alive sooner?" Hazel asked.

"Calypso." Percy once again said, "He has Calypso with him. He freed her." He smiled, glad that even though he hadn't been able to fight the Gods to free her, Leo did.

"No one in mythology has ever found her island twice." Annabeth said, "That must be what took him so long. He found where she was, got her off the island, then he had to find his way back."

Everyone nodded. Jason laughed, "If I see him though, I'm still going to strangle him." A consensus went around pretty quickly that everyone else agreed to that as well.

"What are you all agreeing to?" Nico di Angelo walked over to them, looking much more healthier then anyone had ever seen him before. Will Solace was a miracle worker.

Frank pointed to the cannon, "Leo's alive."

Nico quickly looked over at Hazel and the two had a silent conversation, which ended with Nico looking a bit more understand. He nodded then looked at the six, "Three days after the fight against Gaea, I felt something odd in the Underworld. I just couldn't _sense_ Leo down there like I had been able to earlier. I thought it might have been because he had been reborn, I wasn't able to shadow-travel to check." He looked bitterly towards the infirmary, and everyone already a good idea as to _who_ he was annoyed at. "I never wanted to say anything to give anyone false hope." He sighed, "It's the worst kind."

"I HEARD VALDEZ IS ALIVE!" Coach Hedge came running as fast as his Styr legs could carry him, swinging his baseball bat around, luckily, no one was nearby him this time around. Jason explained what happened to both Nico and Hedge and they all decided to meet back at Thalia's tree tomorrow ten minutes before noon.

Jason and Piper walked hand-in-hand towards the tree at the entrance, "I think Leo had this planned out already. It wasn't just a hit-or-miss kind of thing." Jason finally decided to say what had been on his mind since yesterday.

"What do you mean?" Piper asked, "You think he was already around here?"

"I'm not sure if he was around here, but he knew that Hazel and Frank were here. They just got here this morning and he knew that they were going to be here when we got the message. He did say 'six.' I don't think he was just chancing it."

Piper nodded, "I agree with you. You think he had a correspondent then?"

"No. I really don't think anyone knew he was alive – besides maybe Nico, but he has his reason for not saying anything." Jason said.

"Piper! Jason!" Hazel called out, the couple stopped and turned around to see Hazel and Frank walking towards them. Nico, Hedge, Percy, and Annabeth were trailing just a bit behind them.

They waited for everyone to catch up then walked up to the tree together. Looking behind them, they saw that the rest of the camp already started to bunch up a bit of the ways around from the tree, just enough for them to see what was going on. Will Solace led a piece of the Apollo cabin. Almost the whole of Hephaestus cabin was there – save the handful who had come in since the war and didn't really know what was going on.

"I thought the Apollo healers were all too booked with the Capture the Flag people from yesterday morning." Jason said, looking at Nico.

Nico just shrugged, "They take shifts."

Jason just smirked. Piper elbowed him, "_I'm _the goddess of love's daughter, if anyone should be doing the romantizing, it should be me."

No response came from Jason because in that exact moment, Festus the bronze dragon flew down with the savior of the world on his back. Leo Valdez stood up, behind him, the girl who everyone had known from the picture in Leo's room back in the Argo II stood as well. They both jumped off the dragon and Leo smiled at his friends.

"Did anyone order a smoking hot Leo Valdez?" He happily announced. Piper was the first to run to him and most everyone else wasn't far behind. Hedge looked torn between swinging his bat at Leo and welcoming his back, so Nico decided to take guard to make sure Hedge didn't put Leo out of commission.

Jason didn't take to strangling Leo, per say, but when he hugged his best friend, he hugged him so tight where Leo was yelling, "Superman! Let me go! Can't breathe!"

"We thought you were _dead_ Leo! For a whole month!" Hazel said, hugging him.

"Technically, I _was_ dead."

"Not for a month!" She countered.

Everyone got their hugs in – Nico waved from the back and Coach Hedge nearly knocked Leo out with the bat he was still swinging around – and the whole rest of the demigods roared up the hill to join in the excitement. Talking to Leo about what happened, his brothers and sisters explaining about what newest things they've started to create thanks to his blueprints from Argo II.

Percy, however, took to talking to Calypso, "Hi, umm, Calypso." His eyes didn't have to search too far to find her, she was standing in the back, more observing than anything else.

She nodded to him, "Percy Jackson."

A moment flashed back in his mind of being in Tartarus and watching Annabeth have to endure her curse that she set upon her, he shook his head to clear it. "Look, I don't want to make any excuses for not making sure the Gods followed through with their promise to let you free from Ogyia. I really did think-"

"I'm away from that island now, Percy Jackson." She said, "I finally can have someone that I actually love without them running away to someone else."

Percy nodded, then looked away. He saw Piper was with Festus, talking to him, even though she had no idea what he responded back. Annabeth was watching the two by a group of her siblings, he could tell she was hoping that Percy wouldn't say something stupid. Jason, Hazel, and Frank were all talking to Leo and other demigods around him. Hedge had found his son, Chuck, and was carrying him around, his bat forgotten on the ground. Nico was talking to Will Solace, standing half-in half-out of a shadow.

He took a breath, "I'm glad. I really am glad you got out of there." When Percy fell at a complete loss for words, Frank saved him.

"PERCY! COME HERE AND LOOK AT THIS!" Frank called to him.

Percy pointed over to Frank, "I should probably…" Calypso just shrugged from him to go, so he did.

"You looked like you could use some saving." Frank said quietly to him.

"Thanks." Percy mumbled, slowly making his way over to Leo. A smile grew on his face as he reminded himself, _Leo's alive. He's saved us from Gaea. No more prophecies. We can actually have a good life._

He genuinely smiled, then joined back in on the cheering.


End file.
